Every Little Word
by pokemon fan 98
Summary: Simmons stayed by his side every moment after their ocean rescue, praying for him to wake up. She told him personal stories, and recounted adventures the two had shared together. Fitz may not have been able to respond, but he heard her. She brought him back. He heard every little word.


Every Little Word

Summary: Simmons stayed by his side every moment after their ocean rescue, praying for him to wake up. She told him personal stories, and recounted adventures the two had shared together. Fitz may not have been able to respond, but he heard her. He heard every little word.

**A/N: This is my take on how Fitz recovered after the end of season one. It's a little late, but better late than never. I hope you enjoy it! Review please!**

The glass exploded and Fitz was thrown back, the air forcefully released from his lungs. He tried to breathe, but there was no oxygen. He saw Simmons put the oxygen mask on her face and move towards him, and tried to focus on her. Then his vision faded.

Everything was shades of white and gray, like the pixelated fragments on a television screen when it wasn't working. He was floating in the empty space, not a thought drifting through his mind for the longest time. In that time, his identity was stolen bit by bit by the white and gray space, hiding between the panels of color. But he didn't care that he was losing himself, because he was separate from it; he was lost in space, simply being.

Eventually his seclusion was disturbed by a voice, feminine and gentle but unknown to him. It penetrated the silence that had been around him, and the gray pixels around him seemed to brighten, the information behind them taunting him. He actually felt his interest pique, focusing for the first time in… how long had it been? He had no idea.

"I'm so sorry Fitz." It said. The voice sounded broken, distraught and worried. "Please wake up." It was a whisper, and he made a realization. He was Fitz. As soon as she said it he knew it was true. One of the gray squares detached from the others flew at him, absorbing into him. That's right, he thought. My name is Leo Fitz.

He heard the woman more clearly now, his focus sharpened. She was crying. The sound amplified in the space around him, and he felt the urge to find the woman and hold her, comfort her and make her stop crying. He looked around but saw nothing besides the gray and white. Dang it, he thought. No way out.

The woman recovered enough to continue speaking, which Fitz was grateful for. "I tried to get us to the surface as quickly as possible, but it wasn't fast enough. You were without oxygen for too long. I hate being useless, but there's nothing I can do for you now, Fitz. I can't make you wake up, so please try!" Her voice hitched again, and she started crying, this time completely lost in it.

She was so sad, but he didn't understand why. What had she said? The two of them had tried to get somewhere, and he was deprived of oxygen… He tried to remember, but it wasn't there; not yet at least. And who was the woman talking to him? How did they know each other? Fitz knew that all the information was nearby, behind the white and gray panels. But for some reason he couldn't reach it by himself. He needed someone to remind him first, and then it came back to him.

He willed the woman to continue. He needed to know more. All he had at the moment was a name, and a partial appearance. There was no way to reflect his image, so he didn't know what his face looked like, though he could feel it if he tried. Please, he thought.

But she was too upset to keep going apparently. Her voice lessened until it disappeared completely, and Fitz was alone again. He growled in frustration. He just had to hope she came back soon.

He couldn't tell time in his pixelated prison, but after a while alone he heard her again, this time sounding more cheerful.

"I've looked it up online, Fitz, and there's proof that patients in a coma can be aware of what's going on around them, in certain situations. I know you can hear me; you have to be able to. You're too curious not to." She laughed, and he felt happiness again. It was time to learn about himself again, hopefully a lot more this time.

She didn't disappoint. "Remember when we first met, in the Academy? I never told you how nervous I was. It was one of my first times staying away from home for an extended period, that first week of the trial. S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy takes in the more promising students a few years early, remember? But first we had to stay there for a week and undergo extensive preparations. That was when we met."

He smiled as another square detached from the wall and flew into him, and the memory played before his eyes. He could see the Academy, and his dorm room from freshman year. He could also see a girl, and he relived the memory of meeting her.

"_I'm Jemma Simmons." She said, extending her hand._

_He took it and smiled nervously. "Fitz. Leo Fitz."_

_She nodded. "Pleasure to meet you, Leo."_

"_Call me Fitz."_

_She smiled. "Alright then. Pleasure to meet you, Fitz."_

He smiled. It was the shortest conversation they'd ever had, and definitely one of the most awkward. But it was their first. He gasped as he finished replaying it in his mind. That was the voice he was hearing. Jemma. Even unlocking that piece of information sent a rush of information-filled squares into him, and he felt like a puzzle being slowly put back together. Now he had the basics of his past. All he needed were the details on his beginnings, and everything after the Academy. Not much, right?

It was a start. And Jemma wasn't done talking. She seemed to be just getting started, in fact.

"Remember our first experiments together? We aced our classes. One time we even surpassed the instructor, Mr. Davenport!"

The name came to him just as she said it, and he grinned. It felt good to be connected again.

"The D.W.A.R.F. drones are one of our greatest little projects, in my opinion. I think we finally fixed Sleepy! And you worked so hard on the Night-Night Gun. Everyone was so proud of you when you finished it. Especially your mother. I write to her from time to time, just to make sure she's managing all right by herself. She's such a wonderful woman, you are definitely lucky to have her as a mother. She really cares for you, Fitz. I haven't told her about your… condition. She thinks everything is the same as usual. I know it's horrible to not tell her, but I don't have the heart to. Once you recover, then we'll tell her what happened.

"It's just like when we had my scare with the helmet with the alien virus. I couldn't talk to my parents for a while until I was positive nothing bad was going to happen. But I don't want you to worry about your mother. I would never let anything bad happen to her, or hurt her unnecessarily. That's why I'm waiting to tell her."

He tried to picture the woman Jemma obviously regarded with great respect, but could only form a hazy outline. It will come, he thought. Just keep talking.

My name is Leo Fitz. I went to S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy with Jemma Simmons, and we must have stayed close after, because we've worked together. I remember the projects she's mentioned, but not much else.

He went through that while she was recovering her thoughts, just to reassure himself. Then she started talking again, and he listened eagerly.

"You look so much like your mother, Fitz." Then she changed topic; slightly. "Coulson has been in to visit you every day, you know. He's really worried about you, about as much as he can be. He comes in early in the morning, just before I do. He doesn't know that I've seen him, but he cares for you. May's come in too, I think. Probably sometime in the night. And Skye has been coming in more frequently the past two days. Your vitals are stronger than they were, and I decided to try speaking to you. She worries that I'm spending too much time sitting beside you. She doesn't understand that you would do the same for me, and I know she would do the same for Ward. Or she would have before we found out what a lying bastard he was. She still likes to think there's good in him, but I would need proof to believe it, and I won't give him the chance. He doesn't deserve it."

He heard her go from talking about people with love and respect to a tone of loathing for the last name. Ward. It was very familiar, right on the edge of his reach. So were all the others. Coulson. Skye. May.

Then he gasped. Memories flooded into him after he focused on them, all tied to those names she'd mentioned. He remembered meeting Coulson and joining his team with Jemma, slowly becoming friends with the specialist Grant Ward. He also remembered meeting Skye the hacktivist, the enemy turned ally, and now one of his closest friends. And May was the quiet one, the mentor to all of them and the one who kept them all together; something she did without becoming too directly involved.

He looked around the room as he felt complete ecstasy, finally feeling… like himself. The room around him was much brighter than before, and images had replaced the pixels. Now he saw each of his teammates, his mother, a monkey, and the scenes that meant the most to his life. He watched them progress, skipping over the few blanks he had left. By the time he got to where Jemma had stopped talking he felt light, as if he the lack of knowledge had been weighing him down before.

I'm almost there, he thought. Just a little bit more.

And Jemma gave him all he needed. He listened to her talk for a fair amount of time, taking everything in. When she finally stopped, hours later, he felt strength start coursing through him. There were still a few blanks, but those would come back with time. He knew exactly who he was, what he stood for. He also knew what he had, and what he wanted to gain.

So he took a deep breath, cleared his mind, and closed his eyes. I need to get back, he thought. It's time.

He put all his will into the thoughts, and a second later he opened his eyes- slowly, because he could actually feel them now.

There was light all around him, real light. He was in a bed, with machines next to him and connected to him. And there was a girl sitting in a chair by his side, looking at him as if he were a ghost.

He tried to speak but could only make a small sound. She seemed to snap out of her immediate shock and laughed, jumping up and throwing her arms around him.

"Fitz!" she cried. "Fitz!" Over and over she said his name, as if not believing this could really be happening. Then she just cried, in relief, stress, and happiness. He felt weak, but he was smiling with all his might, and maybe he was crying a bit too. He couldn't be sure, and after he couldn't remember.

She cried and held onto him for a few minutes before sitting back and giving a kind of laugh. "I can't believe it! I've been talking to you all day, and your vital signs increased all of a sudden. I thought something was wrong, but all I could do was watch! Then you started making noise, and your eyes opened, and I just couldn't help myself, I had to hug you!" She looked so happy at that moment. Again he tried to speak, and this time he was closer, but it didn't work. She seemed to understand, and gently gripped his hand. "I know this is probably overwhelming, and I'm sorry for that. But I'm really not sorry. You're alright, and that's all that matters."

"I did wonder if you could hear me though. You were in a coma for two weeks, Fitz. I thought maybe talking to you would help. But maybe it's meant to help the one who's awake more than the one in the coma. I know you need your rest, but can I ask you one thing? Did you hear anything I said?"

He swallowed and looked at her. Her face was tear-streaked and her eyes pink from crying, but she was beautiful to him. He had missed seeing her. Now that he was awake his thoughts were muddled. He still had his memories, he was sure of that. But they weren't clear at the moment. He should have expected it. His brain needed time to recover now that it was functioning properly. But he had to reassure her somehow, tell her that he heard everything. She brought him back.

So with difficulty he formed the words, and very slowly spoke them. Two words, but words he thought would make her smile. "Every word."

Fitz smiled at his small success and watched her reaction. He had been right. Her smile lit up the room.


End file.
